Clouds are swirling fast above us. The sky changes color from orange to grey to white to purple; sky as kaleidoscope. Meanwhile, we hunker down inside, beside the shrine of bottled water, having dutifully collected extra flashlights, batteries, and kayaks, and we wait. With board games and snacks. I suppose it’s not unlike the rest […]
My hens bring me joy. Sometimes I lounge in the yard with a plan to read a book, and then spend the hour watching chickens dodder by, top-heavy, clueless, burbling like a slow stream. They bring me laughter and peace, and every day, warm and smooth round gifts. We love to give our ladies oats […]
For Bastille Day, I did a little jig on my front porch in gratitude to France for the Louisiana Purchase, and then I made macarons. There just is no better dessert, I’m convinced. The last time I made these with my lovely neighbor Denae, I ate my half of the batch with embarrassing haste. Oh, […]
C is for cookie, crescent city, carnival, and courage—respect and laud to all the women and men who joined in the important march this weekend. Saturday was a beautiful day for a protest in New Orleans, and I was heartened by the company of some 15,000 re(sisters) who together, in a procession two miles long, […]
There is little to settle the upset I feel this morning after the election. But also, I am heartened to live in a country whereafter such an upset we are met with peaceful concession and a peaceful transition of power. I woke up with the words of WS Merwin in my throat, a bilious sort […]
The inception of the Year of Chocolate was the gift of the Theo Chocolate cookbook which inspires this week’s chocolate special: caffeinated dark chocolate cookies. Just the thing to keep my eyes open on the ICU night watch this week. Thank you for this cookbook, Marilyn! And the baking chocolate! #7 Gooey Double Chocolate Mocha […]
For this week’s chocolate challenge, a genius hybrid. I’ve taken two classic confections, the Seinfeld race-relations Black and White Cookie, and the popular edible Mardi Gras parade throw, the Moon Pie, and created a delicious masterpiece just in time for the Oshun and Cleopatra parades last night. Ooh these are good! And yes, KP and […]
Just got off the phone with my dear dear friend, forever neighbor, Janelle—and I’m about to dream in snowflakes before I wake up and it all melts with the adrenaline of yet another call day. Happy memories of Minnesota, and more to be make in the land of cocoa snowballs. Cocoa Snowflakes Adapted from […]
My mother is visiting New Orleans, which means I need to keep plenty of nuts on hand, rather, by the bucket. Her metabolism is like the fuel system on an RV. On the prompting of Nuts.com, a site which Mom said she frequents, and surprisingly, as a future psychiatrist, one I had not yet come across, […]
I never knew Great Grandma Moog, just as I never knew Shakespeare or Picasso—all the same her artwork has touched my life and for that I have a sense of fond familiarity. I don’t even know whose Great Grandma she was, not mine, but now that this shared recipe has permeated the cooking blog culture, […]